We got our new Airport Extreme 802.11n today. We decided to deviate from our standard modus operandi and run some benchmarks before we took it apart. (I know, I know-- our screwdrivers were lonely for a while.) This image is a sneak-peek to get your appetite whetted.

The new base station is amazing. We achieved a 10x performance boost, and a 3x usable range increase (significantly better than Apple's 5x/2x claims). Actual benchmarks are on the next page.

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This is the infamous 802.11n Sarbanes-Oxley mandated $1.99 802.11n enabler.

These benchmarks are crude, but should give you a rough idea. All benchmarks were performed with a MacBook Pro 15" Core 2 Duo, a 'snow' 802.11g Airport Extreme Base Station, and the new 802.11n Airport Extreme Base Station.

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We ran all the benchmarks at least three times, and we're presenting you with average numbers. Your mileage will vary significantly, particularly with distance-- our base stations were inside, but the building wasn't big enough so we had to go outside to get 300 feet away.

This graph shows transfer speeds at 5, 100, and 300 feet for both base stations. The graph is not linear or particularly to scale.

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We transferred two 35MB quicktime files (70 MB total). The first location was 5 feet from the base station. With the G base station, we had a reported comm quality of 56, and with the N base station the commQuality was 76. To get the commQuality, run the command `/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/ Resources/airport -I`.

At 5 feet, N was giving me a whopping 9 MB/s! (It averaged at 7.8 MB/s.) I'm accustomed to keeping an ethernet cable at my desk to plug in when I need to make large transfers. With 802.11n, I'll be able to get rid of the extra cable.

At 300 feet (with a building in the way), we were still getting 500 KB/s. We got tired of walking and stopped. I suspect you could still get signal at twice that.

So, is the wireless chipset (Broadcom I presume) removable? Why isn't this chip revealed? It appears to be in the fourth photo (in the upper right). I'm curious because there is a 802.1.11 ac chip for sale online. If the chipset is removable it would be worthwhile to attempt to try the new chip in these previous generation airport extremes.

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This is the bottom of the logic board. Not much to see here--something large covered by another heat sink. At the top right is a plastic cover over the LED. Four ethernet ports, one USB port, a power jack, and a reset button. The Apple part number on the airport card is 603-9396-A.

Here's a <a href="/Guide/200/images_large/airport_logic_bottom.jpg">hi-res</a> photo of the bottom of the logic board.

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My 3rd gen extreme stopped working... No LED indication at all. Tried factory reset, no joy. No LED light illuminates, although It appears the power supply does push juice to the unit somehow, because only indication I have that there still may be life in it is that all LAN inputs blink in unison. Any thoughts? Reparable? Or BER (beyond economical repair)? Unit gave no indication of performance degradation before it stooped working.